WITH some care we have examined the Revised Version of the English New Testament; and, as many of our readers have not the opportunity to thoroughly examine for themselves, we propose to give them some of the results of our examination.
There are very many foolish criticisms of this Revision floating through the papers. The remarks of Dr. Talmage of Brooklyn, have been extensively published; but they are not to be spoken of as a criticism. Dr. T. can be nothing unless he is sensational. There was not a reason in all his remarks; they were just such as any prejudiced person could make without having much knowledge of the subject. And so in many other cases.
It is well to have one idea corrected. Our common version is called the Authorized Version, and King James' Version. In strict truth it was neither. King James barely restricted the labors of those whose hearts were set upon the work. He gave them rules to follow, some of which they followed to the detriment of their work, and some of which they did not follow, whereof we have reason to be glad. It was never authorized; it was accepted; and time only can determine whether the revision shall be so generally accepted. Of this there are great chances for doubt.
It was not to be expected that the revision would fully suit anybody. If it exactly suited any one man it would, probably, suit anybody else. Therefore the most narrow-minded and illiberal will naturally find the most fault. While all cannot be suited, unless all will come to an agreement, we are free to express our conviction that, in many respects, it is an improvement upon the common version. On the other hand, there are many things in it with which we are not pleased. But this would not cause us to lightly throw it aside. All candid persons must acknowledge that there are many objectionable things in the old version. But, even with this acknowledgment, they do not stand on an equal footing in regard to finding public favor.
The old has the advantage of possession. It is our firm conviction that, if the two were presented together, both newly made, neither of them in current use, with the evidences for and against fully set forth, the revised would be almost universally accepted as the better version. This is a safe judgment, for the revision has corrected some prominent errors of the old, which must be admitted by all.
Some have objected that it is not wise to make any changes at all, because it is admitted that no change has been made which affects any doctrine of the gospel. But this objection is only plausible. The canon of Scripture should contain, as nearly as is possible to get them, the exact words given by inspiration, neither more nor less. Other words may be unexceptionable in sentiment, or pious in intention, but if they were not spoken by Christ nor written by his inspired followers, they have no right to stand with the holy Scriptures. We rejoice in the fact that no doctrine has been affected by the critical research of all the learned in the last two centuries. The providence of God has guarded the sacred words in a wonderful manner.
Every one who examines the most marked changes, and inquiries into the reasons, must be struck with the fact that these reasons have not recently come to light. As has been said, they have been the common property of the learned for many years. Let us test a few prominent cases. Greenfield's Greek Testament and Lexicon is in very common use. Very few ministers are without this valuable book. His notes are based on the criticisms of Griesbach, to whom the world is largely indebted for the results of his Biblical research. One of the most noticeable changes in the revision is the omission of the doxology of the Lord's prayer, Matt. 13. Turning to the Greek we find it marked as "entirely rejected as spurious." Dr. Clarke, who is conservative on most such questions, and who lacked some of the advantages enjoyed by the recent revisers, thought it should not be omitted; but he says, "The whole of this doxology is rejected by Wetstein, Griesbach, and the most eminent critics. The authorities on which it is rejected may be seen in Griesbach and Wetstein, particularly in the second edition of Griesbach's Testament, which is fully of opinion that it never made a part of the sacred text. It is variously written in several MSS. and omitted by most of the Fathers, both Greek and Latin." This is cited merely to show that its rejection is not a new thing with the recent revisers.319Acts 8:37. This verse is so rejected as spurious that not a word remains to be said in its favor. Alexander Campbell left it out of his edition of the New Testament, though the denomination which he founded has extensively used it as "the good confession," sufficient of itself to entitle one to the privileges of church membership.
1 Cor. 6:20. The Revised Version gives this verse thus: "For ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body." The remaining words—and in your spirit, which are God's—are omitted. Griesbach has this also, marked as spurious. Dr. Clarke says: "Almost every critic of note considers them to be spurious." The reader will notice that the argument of the apostle is complete without this clause.
1 John 5:7, 8. The omission of what has been termed the "three heavenly witnesses." This text has been rejected by all late authorities. We propose to give next week Dr. Clarke's argument proving that it is spurious.
And if these passages are spurious, what right have they to stand in the sacred text? If the learned have sufficient evidence that they are unauthorized additions to the sacred Scriptures, why should they be retained in the Scriptures to deceive the unlearned? Such reasons as these are sufficient to show that a revision was necessary, or at least may prove to be useful.
DESTRUCTION OF THE HEBREW CHILDREN.
By John Nevins Andrews
How cruel is Satan! How bloody and how awful the conduct of his most faithful servants. How vast the distance that an angel, the highest in all the heavenly host, must fall to become the instigator of such deeds of wickedness as fill the history of man! Sin wrought this infinite change in that exalted being who once walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Eze. 28. Beware of this terrible evil. What has ruined Satan will also ruin others who are guilty of it.
When Jacob went down into Egypt it seemed to have been the turning point in his captivity. That is to say, his long-continued afflictions, which may be traced directly to his sin in the case of Esau, were closed up forever. The chastisement of his sin had wrought in him repentance so deep and thorough that the rod of God was now withdrawn. His sojourn in Egypt was the period assigned by Providence for his ripening off for the kingdom of God. His sun set in heavenly brightness. It was some time after this before the prosperity of the Hebrew people ceased. But the change came at last, and a terrible change it was. Joseph and his services were all forgotten. And not only this, but even rigorous cruelty was added to the wicked ingratitude of the Egyptians. See Ex. 1.
The king of Egypt made slaves of the Hebrews, lest, by-and-by, they "get them up out of the land." What made him think of such a movement on their part? Beyond all doubt he had heard that Israel expected, by-and-by, to return again to Canaan. He was determined that they should not. So by one edict, he reduced them to debasing servitude. Yet how shortsighted was all this! Had the Hebrew people continued to enjoy prosperity in Egypt, it is difficult to see how that God himself could have induced them to leave it with all its good things, and to undertake a tedious journey, at best, through a terrible wilderness to reach Canaan, and by force of arms drive out the well-armed hosts of the Canaanites. They certainly would have shrunk from such an undertaking. So God caused the wrath of man to praise him. He suffered a wicked king to stir up their nest so that they could no longer remain in it.
The king of Egypt, finding that the people increased even more rapidly in their bitter servitude than before, next ordered the destruction of all the male children of the Hebrews. Every one of them, he enacted, should be thrown into the river.
The king of Egypt thought by this means to blend the Hebrew people with the Egyptians, and to prevent their existence as a separate people. But Satan, who stirred up his mind to this cruel project, had something else in view. He knew that the time of deliverance to the Hebrews was at hand. He had no doubt that God was about to raise up their deliverer. Satan hoped to destroy this deliverer as soon as he should be born. What he attempted in the case of the child Jesus, he had tried before in the case of the child Moses. Thank God it failed each time. And now, see how impotent is Satan's malice. It was needful that Moses should be educated in Pharaoh's court.
This very edict, which Satan undoubtedly instigated, especially to destroy Moses, was the very means whereby Moses was raised to the place he needed first in the king's court, and whereby the utmost advantage of earthly wisdom would be secured to this noble child. Let us have stronger faith in God. J. N. A.
CAMP-MEETING AT PARKER, DAKOTA.
By George I. Butler
BY ELD. GEO. I. BUTLER.
THIS camp-meeting held from June 30 to July 5, was by far the largest one ever held by Seventh-day Adventists in this Territory. The grounds were in a grove of cotton-woods on the farm of Bro. Burgess, some two miles east of the station. There are very few natural groves in this whole region of country—all one vast prairie, most of it never touched by the plow. Here and there groves have been set out like this one. The trees had grown to a height of about fifteen feet, and afforded considerable protection from the heat. Unlike the four preceding camp-meetings of this season, this was very dry and warm, scarce a cloud from the beginning to the close.
Twenty-seven tents were up, and over two hundred encamped on the ground. Probably there were more than twice as many of our people in attendance as ever before in Dakota. It is only two years since the Conference was organized, and the growth from immigration has been quite rapid. Full one-half of those present were Scandinavians. Eld. O. A. Olsen held two or three services a day in their tongue, while I did most of the speaking in the English tongue. Elder Whitney, president of the Conference, spoke a few times. The interest to hear was excellent from the beginning to close, and the social meetings good.
On the Sabbath we had a great blessing from the Lord. I had felt very weary and languid under the labor of the past and the heat of the present. It seemed a great burden to undertake to speak in the afternoon. The Lord gave special freedom. When we called for those to come forward who wished to specially seek for God's blessing and to more fully consecrate themselves to him, and wanted prayers, about four-fifths of those present came forward; deep feeling was manifested by many, and the Lord came very near us. Tears flowed freely, and precious showers of divine grace fell upon us, melting our hearts in unwonted tenderness. Ministers and people were deeply affected. It was a very precious season. The feeling of languor and weariness entirely left me and did not return, though the weather continued very warm. God's blessing comforts and strengthens those who receive it. In it is spiritual life and physical strength.
Our meeting Sunday was not attended by many from the surrounding country. But there were some interested hearers.
Monday the Lord greatly blessed our meetings; when a call was made for those who had never started before, or had greatly backslidden till their hopes were gone, forty or fifty came forward and good testimonies were given. Sixteen were baptized in Vermillion River by Eld. Whitney. Quite a number of these started for the first time. I left that night before the closing morning meeting. Many were deeply affected while speaking of the good meeting we had had, and the tears would start as we parted.
Dakota seems to be an excellent field of labor. It is fast filling up with a sober, industrious, virtuous class of people. The Scandinavians are pouring into the country, and it is an excellent time to make exertions to reach them with the present truth. Eld. Olsen, who is specially looking after this branch of the work, found good openings apparently all around. There are also two or three small companies of Russians in the Territory keeping the Sabbath, who have embraced it within about two years. They speak the German, and our brethren speak of them as a pious, honest class of people. We have had no laborer who speaks German who could do much for them and they need further instruction on some points of faith; we hope to send them help in their own tongue soon. They are already sending the light back to Russia, and souls are becoming interested in it there. Surely God is opening channels of light in all directions. May his precious truth still go to nations, kindreds, tongues, and kings, till all the earth has the light of the last message of warning.
THE LAW OF CHASTISEMENT.
In Jeremiah 36:32, we read, "And there were added besides unto them, many like words." The circumstances in reference to which this declaration was made, were these: God had sent Jeremiah to the nobles and rulers of Israel with terrific warnings and fearful denunciations against their wickedness, designing thereby to turn them from their evil ways. Jeremiah being in confinement called in Baruch to act as scribe for him, who wrote from his lips upon a roll of a book all the words that the Lord uttered by the prophet against Judah and Jerusalem. This roll Baruch then took and read in the house of the Lord, and before the princes, and was finally called in to read the same words before the king. Did the king learn wisdom from the denunciations he received? Did he heed the warnings given, and seek by repentance, and turning to the Lord, to avert impending calamities? By no means. But on the contrary, in the anger of his rebellious heart he took the roll, and, with his penknife, impiously cut it up and threw it into the fire before him.
What did he accomplish by this? He had destroyed the roll; its words of warning which he hated were no longer before him; he had endeavored to vent his spite upon their author; but were the purposes of God frustrated thereby? Because the written record was destroyed, did God forget his intended judgments, or lose the power to bring them to pass? The sequel shows. Jeremiah was immediately commanded of the Lord to take another roll, and write in it all the former words of the first roll which the king had destroyed; but this time the matter did not stop here; for, in the language above quoted, "there were added besides unto them many like words." The first denunciation of wrath and coming judgments against the king and the people were designed to turn them from their evil ways, and lead them to repentance and the service of the Lord; and had they received it in this way, he would have turned from the evil he thought to do unto them. But instead of this they rose up in rebellion; they despised the counsel and scorned the reproof. And then not only the original threatenings were made to stand against them, but many more were added, the judgments were multiplied, and their severity increased. And this is what we mean by the law of God's chastisements: Whenever they do not have their designed effect upon us, they are increased in severity, till they do bring us into a right position or we get beyond hope.
In this, there is an important lesson for us. Whenever a test is presented before us, if we cannot stand that, a severer one will come. If a trial is sent us to bear, designed for our benefit, if not received aright, if we by our resistance and rebellion prevent its having its designed effect upon us, a harder one still will be given to school us into the way of right. If one chastisement from the Lord does not work in us the needed reformation, a heavier will be inflicted.
We had better, therefore, yield at the outset. We had better not be stubborn or rebellious scholars in the school of Christ. We had better so profit by the first lesson, that it will not need to be repeated with many things added thereto. We had better, at the first intimation of the will of our Lord, seek earnestly to know all his counsel, and yield to it a prompt and willing obedience. Such a course will save others much perplexity on our account, and ourselves much sorrow in the end.
U. S.
OUR MEDITATIONS.
By J. Clarke
BY J. CLARKE.
"AND in his law doth he meditate day and night." Suppose that David had meditated upon the foul sin of Absalom, the conspiracy and baseness of his darling son, or the treachery of Ahithophel, or the cruelty of his father-in-law, Saul, and the trials of his eventful life; would he have written the book of Psalms, if he had allowed such meditations to press him to the earth? Doubtless he often thought of his dreadful trials, but he did not allow these things to weigh him down. No, his meditations were worthy of the man of God.
Often, no doubt, these things came upon him with crushing weight; but he looked upward, and holy wisdom descended and filled his soul. Then the affairs of earth dwindled into insignificance, as the glories of eternity beamed brightly before his eye of faith and love.
So let us look upward for light, for we shall not find it in these trials. Below is darkness, above is light. Immoderate and uncontrollable grief does not always prove either depth of mind, or largeness of benevolence; but it is as often the offspring of ignorance and superstition, as of love.
Piety and wisdom calm the passions, and grief is one of the passions; good, if well controlled; evil, when carried to an extreme. As the skillful workman tempers the steel for the keen, cutting blade, so should all our passions be well tempered, not too brittle, nor too soft, but just exactly right.
MEETING AT PACHECO.
By W. J. Bostwick
According to appointment, the district quarterly meeting of the T. and M. Society was held at Pacheco, Contra Costa Co., July 9. As this was a meeting of considerable importance to the brethren in that section of the district, a full attendance was anticipated. In this we were not disappointed, for, although few in numbers, the brethren in Lafayette and Pacheco showed their appreciation of this privilege, and their interest in the work, by a general attendance at the meeting.
A number of the brethren from the Oakland church were also present, among whom was Eld. J. H. Waggoner, who addressed the congregation Sabbath evening and evening after the Sabbath. Quite a number from the outside were in attendance, and listened with marked attention to the great truths of God's word for these times. From all appearances a good impression was made upon these hearers, which will, doubtless, greatly aid our Pacheco friends in their labors in the missionary field.
The business meeting of the society was well attended, and all seemed anxious to learn more perfectly the way in which to carry on the missionary work to the best advantage. A number of stirring testimonies in regard to personal effort were given, which gave evidence that the interest in the advancement of God's work in this section was not dead, but that these brethren and sisters earnestly desired to see souls finally saved in God's kingdom through their personal efforts. Some obstructions had been in the way of the Lafayette church for a time past; but these were all happily removed, and a spirit of harmony now exists throughout the entire district.
There is no more important district in the State than district No. 7, and we thank God that the work now promises to go forward with new energy, and that the ending of the present quarter will show far greater results than the one just closed. W. J. Bostwick, Director.
I HAVE DONE GIVING.
By Nevins
A GENTLEMAN of high respectability, and a member of the church, made this remark the other day, when informed that an application was about to be made to him in behalf of some charitable object. "I have done giving," said he. When I heard of this remark it awakened in my mind a train of reflection, which I have thought it might not be amiss to communicate.
"Done giving!" Has he indeed? Why? Has he given all? Has he nothing left to give? Has this disciple done what his Master did? Was he rich, and has he become poor for the sake of others, that they, through his poverty, might be rich? Oh, no! he is rich still. He has the greatest abundance—more than enough to support him in elegance, and to leave an ample inheritance to his children. What if he has a great deal? He has not only not impoverished himself, but is probably richer now, through the favor of Providence, than he would have been had he never given anything. Now if, by honoring the Lord with his substance, his barns, instead of being emptied have been filled with plenty, he had better continue this mode of honoring him. He should rather increase than arrest his liability.
"Done giving!" Why? Is there no more need of giving? Is every want abundantly supplied? Is the whole population of our country furnished with the means of grace? Have missionaries visited every shore? Is the Bible translated into every language and distributed in every land, a copy in every family, and every member of every family taught to read it? Are the accommodations for widows and orphans as ample as they should be? Is there a house of refuge for every class of the human family that needs one? Or have the poor ceased from the land? Oh, no! There are no such good reasons as these for ceasing to give. Why then has he done giving? Is it because others do not give as they ought? But what is that to him? Will he make the practice of others his rule of conduct rather than the precept of Jesus Christ? If others do not give, so much more should he. Will he add another name to the list of niggards?
Does he feel worse for having given away so much? Has it made him unhappy? Is his experience different from that of the Lord Jesus, who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive?"
Has he, who thinks he will give no more, been led to that conclusion by having found that what has been given hitherto has done no good? And is it so, that no good has been done by all the Bibles published, and all the tracts distributed? And yet at this time, when a dollar goes so far in doing good, here is a man who says, "I have done giving." If I had his ear for a moment, I would ask him if he has done receiving—if God has done giving to him. I would ask him, moreover, if he has done spending, or done hoarding, or done wasting. Now, if he has not, he surely should not stop giving. When he ceases to waste, to hoard, and to spend, except for the merest necessaries, then he may stop giving, but never till then.
"Done giving!" that is, done lending to the Lord! Done sowing and watering! Done offering the sacrifices with which God is well pleased! Done making the widow's heart leap for joy, and bringing on himself the blessing of them that were ready to perish! Well, I am sorry—sorry for the sake of the poor, and the sick, and the orphan, and the ignorant, and the heathen. But no less sorry am I for the man's own sake. Poor man! poor with all his affluence, for there is really no one more poor than he, who, with the ability to give, has not the inclination. He has it in his power to give, but not in his heart. He is enriched with abundance, but not with liberality.
"Done giving!" well then, if he will not give his money, he must keep it. And yet how short the time he can keep it! Had he not better freely give away some of it, than to wait for it all to be torn from him? The thought that he has given, will be at least as agreeable a meditation in his dying moments, as the reflection that he spent, or that he laid up.
I hope that gentleman who said "I have done giving," will recall his resolution, and taking revenge on himself for having made it, give more liberally than ever.—Nevins.
The Missionary.
THE HARVEST.
ONE wept that his harvest was small,
With little of fruit or of grain;
While his neighbor, with barn running o'er,
Still followed the full freighted wain.
“How much didst thou sow,” I said, “friend?”
“A handful of wheat less or more.”
“And didst thou expect broad acres would bend
To thy sickle from such scanty store?”
Who sparingly soweth, must look
For little of fruit or of grain;
’Tis only the bountiful sower can reap
A bountiful harvest again.
A lesson, I said, to thee, soul,
For harvest-time soon will be here;
Sow with bountiful hand lest thou weep at the last,
When the Lord of the harvest draws near.
— Watch-Tower.
CAUSE IN ENGLAND.
By John Norton Loughborough
SINCE my return from Bale we note some progress in our work here. On June 6 we had a call at Ravenswood, from two persons who had embraced the truth by reading, and wished baptism. They spent several hours with us, attached their names to our covenant here, were baptized, and returned to their homes rejoicing.
As there is something encouraging in this case for our missionary workers, I will give a few particulars. On Sept. 14, 1880, I sent a list of twenty-two names and addresses to Bro. Geo. R. Drew of St. Helena, California. Papers and letters were sent to these persons by the Vigilant Missionary Society of St. Helena. Among the names to whom papers were sent was that of an atheist. On receiving the SIGNS, he did not read them himself, but gave them to one of his acquaintances whom he thought might be interested in perusing them. The one thus receiving the papers, after reading and seeing a notice of this depository, sent to subscribe for the paper one year. This led to correspondence and the purchase of books on different points of our faith, and finally to the reception of the truths taught in the SIGNS. This person got the books and papers into the hands of one of his acquaintances who also accepted the truth, and both have been baptized, as stated above.
Sabbath, June 11, another person who has also embraced the truth by reading, and had kept a few Sabbaths, spent the Sabbath with us and was baptized, attaching her name to the covenant.
As there are other openings for meetings, and I hardly deemed my strength sufficient to engage in tent-meetings alone, we decided not to repair the tent this year but to use other means of labor.
On last First-day I held meeting, for the first time, at Woolstone, a few miles from Ravenswood, where we had been offered the free use of a room. A few came in who listened with good attention. Next First-day (D. V.) we have meeting there again. Trust this effort will accomplish good, as many of the audience are interested to follow up what they hear with careful reading. Pray for us. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
LOS ANGELES.
By William M. Healey
SINCE our last report, we have continued our meetings with fair audiences. Seven more have been baptized, and three persons have commenced to keep the commandments. The interest in our Sabbath-school is increasing.
The tent company are all quite well and find plenty to do.
We are trying to raise the means for a church-building and have one thousand dollars subscribed.
We are not through here yet, but hope to see more souls come out into the light, and a good church erected to the honor and glory of God, and for a home to those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
W. M. HEALEY.
BLUE LAKES, LAKE CO., CAL.
By Isaac Morrison
I CLOSED a series of meetings in a school-house near the Blue Lakes, Sunday, July 3. As the valley is quite narrow here, but few people live near enough to the school-house to attend meetings.
Two persons have begun to keep the Sabbath; others are convinced of the truth, and I think they will obey it.
A good report has gone out from the meetings, and people in different parts of the county are becoming interested to hear the truth.
ISAAC MORRISON.
A JOYFUL SERVICE.
"What business are you in now?" asked one young man of another.
"I am working for Christ," was the reply.
The friends had met after a brief interval of absence, each to find the other changed.
"An honest, but not a paying, work. You will need to work for the world as well as religion. You always said you meant to be a rich man, an influential man; but you have started wrong for that. Large drafts upon your time, your purse, and the sacrifice of many plans, are demanded by this religion of yours."
"I have started just the right way, my friend, to reach wealth, influence, and all the earthly good I have so foolishly boasted I would have. I have sacrificed nothing, but gained all things. I will try to prove all things."
And the young man did prove it nobly to his friend and to the world. In his business relations, in his intercourse with the world, he stood firmly upon the Rock which he had chosen for his foundation, and many, whose shelter had been early washed away, looked up to his secure dwelling, and built on the same Rock. Religion was his every-day dress, and no Sabbath cloak was needed to cover its soils; for prayer and watchfulness kept it pure day by day. To give as God had prospered him, of wealth, of time, of talent, was a part of his joyful service, and God gave him back in return four-fold.—Sel.
THE BIBLE.
By Bishop Simpson
THERE are four grand arguments for the truth of the Bible. The first is the miracles on record, the second the prophecies, the third the goodness of the doctrine, the fourth the moral character of the penman.
The miracles flow from divine power, the prophecies from divine understanding, the excellence of the doctrine from divine goodness, the moral character of the penman from divine purity. Thus Christianity is built upon these four immovable pillars—the power, the understanding, the goodness, the purity of God.—Bishop Simpson.
Silence and Boisterousness in Right and Wrong
It is wonderful how silent a man can be when he knows his cause is just, and how boisterous he becomes when he knows he is in the wrong.
MORE TEMPERANCE FACTS AND AN OPINION.
YOUR recent editorial on temperance, with all its excellences, I fear will give a wrong impression to many who seek for some excuse for the dangerous habit of moderate drinking, especially by the statement, "The Bible does not treat the drinking of fermented liquors as a sin." There are very many sins, such as gambling, and betting, and others peculiar to our day, or appearing in far more aggravated forms than in the past, which the Bible does not condemn by name, but only by the fair application of its general principles. It is not a single passage here and there in the Bible, nor a single event in Christ's life that shows the relation of Christianity to the use of wine, but the whole current of Christ's life and the whole tendency of Bible teaching. What does the Bible as a whole teach in regard to needless indulgences that may bring harm to us and danger to others? There can be no doubt as to the answer. The dictionary and common sense both teach that temperance means moderation in the indulgence of right appetites and passions. There can be no temperance in wrong indulgences—no temperate thieving, or temperate adultery. Temperance means such self-control that one will indulge only in moderation in what is right, and restrain himself altogether from what is wrong. Is the use of wine and alcoholic liquors wrong in itself? We assume that it is wrong for one to do anything unnecessary which is likely to endanger the health and life of himself and others. It would be wrong for a man to manufacture, sell, or use an article of food for dogs which, on being introduced through the country, would cause 100,000 out of the millions of dogs in the land to go mad every year, with the consequent loss of human life. It would be wrong to use such an article, even if the dogs liked it; even though many dogs that used it escaped from the worst consequences; wrong, because any dog to which it was fed might become mad and imperil or destroy life. The use of alcoholic liquors in our land, in at least one hundred thousand cases every year, makes men into drunkards, into mad dogs, the terror of home and street. The use of alcohol as a beverage imperils life, but life may rightly be imperiled in some cases for a necessity of life. Is alcohol such a necessity? No one, not even the exceptional physicians who array themselves against the declaration of the "International Medical Congress of 1876," that "alcohol is not shown to have any definite food value"—no one would assert that any alcoholic liquor is a necessity of life to persons in health. It is wrong, then, for any one to encourage by his example the use of alcohol as a beverage, since it is not a necessity of life, and is sure to bring disaster and death to many who take it.
The theory of being temperance men and helpers to the cause without total abstinence, has been thoroughly tested and found wanting. In 1600 a temperance society was organized that pledged its members not to get drunk except on public days. This society amounted to nothing. In 1700, another society was formed in New York that fined its members twenty-five cents a week for each instance of drunkenness. This also died, a failure. The history of temperance is strewn with such wrecks of attempted moderation. Nothing enduring has ever been done to help the cause of temperance on any standard less than total abstinence. As to the theory of beer and wine being harmless, who has not read Bismarck's recent lament that his beer-drinking countrymen have made a "national scandal" by their increasing drunkenness. In our climate, politics, and society, such drinks are yet more harmful. Who can name a drunkard whose degradation was not reached by the door of wine or beer? Distilled liquors are the cataract, but fermented liquors are the rapids above where the victims are drawn into the fatal current. As a professional criminal may have many aliases and disguises, so the maddening poison, alcohol, named from the ancient fiend, Al Gohol, appears at one time as beer, and at another as whisky, but in every instance it is the same poison. In several glasses of the fermented liquors one can take as much of the crazing poison into blood and brain as in one of distilled liquor. Foolish pride in small men cries as the poison glass is lifted, "I've too strong a will to be a drunkard." Wisdom says, as the glass is declined, in the words of the great Dr. Johnson, "I can abstain; I can't be moderate."
—W. F. Crafts, in Christian Union.
WOMAN'S WORST ENEMY.
"Of the worst foes that women have ever had to encounter, wine stands at the head. The appetite for strong drink in men has spoiled the lives of more women—ruined more hopes for them, brought to them more shame, sorrow, and hardship than any other evil that exists. The country numbers tens of thousands of women who are widows to-day, and sit in hopeless weeds, because their husbands have been slain by strong drink.
"Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of homes, scattered all over the land, in which women live lives of torture, going through all the changes of suffering that lie between the extremes of fear and despair, because they love wine better than the women they had sworn to love. There are women by the thousands who dread to hear at the door the step that once thrilled them with pleasure; that step has learned to reel under the influence of the seductive poison. There are women groaning with pain, while we write these words, from brutalities inflicted by husbands mad with drink. There can be no exaggeration in any statement made in regard to this matter, because no human imagination can create anything worse than the truth. The sorrows of a wife with a drunken son, are as near the realization of hell as can be reached in this world at least. The shame, the indignation, the sorrow, the sense of disgrace for herself and children, the poverty—and not unfrequently the beggary—the fear and the fact of violence, the lingering, life-long struggle and despair of countless women with drunken husbands, are enough to make all women curse wine, and engage unitedly to oppose it everywhere as the worst enemy of their sex."
Scribner's Monthly.
THEY LOVE TO HAVE IT SO.
A MINISTER having charge of one of our largest city churches, made the astonishing statement that during the year that particular church had lost more members by the use of intoxicating liquors than by death. An aged missionary, returned from foreign lands, stated in a public meeting that, for each convert made from heathenism by the preaching of the gospel, many drunkards were made by the importation of alcoholic liquors from Christian lands, by the sanction of Christian governments.
And then to think that this liquor traffic, the curse of curses, the "sum of all villainies," is licensed in Connecticut with her hundreds of Christian churches, and thousands of church members! And how many of those church members voted to have it so—to sanction this dreadful business? As Jeremiah says, "They set traps to catch men, and my people love to have it so!"—Golden Censer.
A PLEA FOR TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
By Dr. Cuyler
THE Almighty God who created our bodies wrote on those bodies a prohibitory law against alcohol. No court, or medical society, or church dares repeal that law. According to that divine law, written on body and mind, the healthy human system regards alcohol instinctively as an enemy. The uprising of the bodily powers against alcohol to expel it, makes the excitement which we call "intoxication." It is an attempt to cast out the invader. The blood seeks to throw it out. The kidneys throw it out. The stomach hurls it off. The skin exudes it. There is not an organ that assimilates it and takes it up, as they take up milk, or water, or bread. Alcohol does not promote digestion. Alcoholic drinks do not nourish, do not warm, do not strengthen. Chemists will tell you that in ten quarts of alcohol there is less food than can be spread on the end of a knife! Captain Brassey reported that of the two gangs of men who worked on the English railroads, the total abstainers worked the best, and Admiral Ingalfield, who explored the arctic region tells us that the man who reached nearest to the pole was a man who went on the expedition without a drop of liquor in his flask. The most heroic explorer of this century was David Livingstone, who opened Africa. He was not only a heroic missionary, but a professional physician and pledged abstainer. He said: "I found I could stand every hardship best without the stimulus of any alcoholic drink, using water, and water only." He says that sometimes the water he drank was putrid with mud and insects, yet he never found the least bad effect from it, and he went as a pledged abstainer through the terrific exposures year after year, and brought a testimonial for total abstinence which ranks with his actual geographical discoveries.— Dr. Cuyler.